The Difference Between an Employee and a Partner

What’s the difference between an employee and a partner? In one word — ownership. One of my first jobs was as a barista at this place called Coffee People. It was the anti-Starbucks of the late ’90s. This grassroots, Portland-based, locally roasted, stick-it-to-the-man café was the closest thing to third wave before there was a third wave.

Once in a while I would be sitting there, bored out of my mind, and then all of the sudden twenty or thirty people would all walk in at once. We called it “the rush.” The rush was an adrenaline junkie’s dream. It was hectic, loud, stressful,…